Three Million Apple iPads Already Sold

Reports are coming in that Apple has sold three million units of new iPads in the first three days of its availability. “Sales of the 20.1-cm (7.9-inch) iPad mini and fourth-generation 24.6-cm (9.7-inch) version, both Wi-Fi only models, were double the first-weekend sales of the Wi-Fi iPad sold in March,” Apple said.

Interestingly, the company did not break out numbers for its iPad mini. Leading analysts estimate that about 2.3 million of the new iPads sold over the weekend were the mini-tablets, surpassing expectations of 1 million to 1.5 million.

Apple has never ever introduced two different iPad models in one quarter, until the iPad Mini and iPad 4 happened this year. The company said it had already shipped many of the new iPads ordered before the release date, but some would not be sent out until later this month.

“We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis,” Apple chief executive, Tim Cook said in a statement. “We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”

The sales charts are soaring for Apple and iPad devices are playing a crucial role in determining company’s fortunes. The tablet segment for this holiday period has some serious names with Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD, Google Nexus 7 and 10 probably, also Microsoft’s Surface tablet and like many other observers out there, we feel that even though Apple has a premium tag to it, there are other brands offering top-end devices at affordable cost this year.